Saudi-led aggressors have to bear tragic consequences if Yemen war persists: Houthi

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement has warned the Saudi-led coalition against the continuation of its atrocious military campaign against the impoverished and conflict-plagued Arab country, saying members of the alliance will have to accept grave consequences if the aggression persists.

“I call on the Saudi regime to stop the aggression and siege, otherwise the risks of continuing the aggression are great and the results will be severe for them,” Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech broadcast live from the capital Sana’a on Saturday evening.

He added that Yemeni forces will continue to develop their military hardware and will launch much harsher retaliatory attacks in case the Saudi-led assaults continue.

“Those who are seeking war and blockade and hoping to bring us to our knees are doing a useless job, and nothing but damage and harm awaits them,” Houthi pointed out.

“Aggressive Saudis must end blockade of Yemen. We understand the level of suffering that Yemeni people are enduring as a result of the blockade,” the Ansarullah chief highlighted, calling on the Yemeni nation to stay resilient in the face of oppressive Saudis.

“Our people will not hesitate to declare jihad (holy war) against the Israeli enemy, and to launch the most severe strikes against sensitive targets in the occupied territories if the enemy engages in any folly against our people,” the Ansarullah leader said.

“We reaffirm our anti-Israel position and that the regime is an occupying one. This is a principled humanitarian, moral and religious commitment,” he said.

Houthi finally pointed to the theft of Yemen’s national resources by the Saudi-led coalition of aggression, saying more than 120 million barrels of crude oil have been looted in southern Yemeni areas occupied by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past four and a half years.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

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